[U.S. UNDER-20 MEN] Indicative of the growing number of young American players who have turned pro, U.S. under-20 national team coach Thomas Rongen is taking a team comprised entirely of professional players -- including a half a dozen new faces -- to a four-team international tournament Sept. 1-13 in Arequipa, Peru.

The roster includes:

-- seven players based in the United States (five in MLS and two in the D-2 Pro League)

-- seven in Mexico (including cousins Moises and Emilio Orozco and the highly regarded Victor Garza all at Tigres);

-- three in Portugal (including Braga's Gale Agbossoumonde, who captained the U-20 team that won the Milk Cup trophy in Northern Ireland in July);

-- two in Germany (Hertha Berlin players Anthony Brooks and Jerome Kiesewetter were called up for the first time); and

@Ric
It's hard to indict them without knowing the full story.
For many kids in CA born to parents who came from south of the border (especially those who crossed over illegally) they have very little concept of what the US has to offer other than a little more work for a little more money than they had been getting.
With that in mind, when they have a son who is adept at soccer they don't necessarily put him in a place where USSF will see them etc. They immediately contact the club they followed growing up. Chivas has gotten quite a few players like that. I believe Jose Torres ended up at Pachuca the same way.
So while, yes, I agree there needs to be a better effort to identify players earlier, the fact is a lot of these players were ever only 'shown' to clubs in Mexico and elsewhere. (this even happens for kids born to English parents who immigrated here. They go to what they know)
Finally, even those who are aware of MLS, also tend to know that Pachuca or Chivas at the moment, are going to be able to offer more money up front. So a lot of it comes down to cold hard $$$ as well.
If MLS was offering the kind of money highly rated MLB prospects get, you'd see a lot of this change and you'd get a lot more independent scouts like you have in baseball who find people for finder's fees helping to fill up the gaps. It's going to take time. MLS is still a young league, but if history has shown us anything, when America puts it's mind to something it usually gets done, and usually gets done bigger and better than everyone else.